Prague AIR 2025 Conference: Innovation and the Future of Airport Management in Central Europe

Prague, June 12, 2025 – Aviation industry experts from across Europe gathered in Prague for the AIR 2025 Conference, a two-day event dedicated to the future of airport management, innovation, and new trends in aviation and tourism. The conference brought together representatives from airports, industry organizations, technology providers, and experts from Central Europe and beyond.

On the first day of the conference, participants had the opportunity to visit Prague Airport and speak with its managers. The second day was dedicated to innovations shaping the face of modern aviation. One of the most anticipated sessions was the panel discussion, “Artificial Intelligence – What has changed in airport management?” Moderated by Grzegorz Zajączkowski from Aithernal, the panel featured leaders from Martin Prague, Riga, Warsaw, and Istanbul, who discussed whether AI has truly revolutionized airport management, what tools are used daily, and what the future prospects and potential threats related to AI in the aviation sector are. An earlier presentation by Amanda Khuong-Duc from Gharage, “From Fiction to Flow – The Intelligent Airport,” served as an excellent introduction to this discussion.

“I participated in a panel on artificial intelligence at the AIR conference 2 years ago in Slovenia. It seems recent, but those 2 years in the AI industry are like 20 years in our daily lives,” said Grzegorz Zajączkowski.

Regarding the key question of whether artificial intelligence will lead to job reductions at airports, the answers were quite consistent. Panelists argued that people would change the way they work rather than their jobs entirely. As Amanda Khuong-Duc stated, people will not be replaced by AI, but rather, people who do not use AI will be replaced by those who can utilize it better. Martin Kucera, a board member of Prague Airport, argued that AI will have and already has an impact on human resource management. The use of AI can lead to greater efficiency, allowing a smaller number of people to perform certain tasks, for example, in security. This, in turn, allows them to be deployed elsewhere. When asked how many hours per week they work with AI, panelists reported, depending on the individual, between 10 and 30 hours.

Another important topic was the panel on Airport Operations Centers (APOC), “APOC – Total Airport Management.” Experts from Prague, Tirana, and ACI Europe, including Eugene Leeman from ACI Europe, Michał Witkowski from Tirana Airport, and Vladimír Kuráň and Pavlína Pecoldová from Prague Airport, discussed the biggest challenges in coordinating APOC activities during emergencies (e.g., severe storms, system failures), new technologies supporting crisis management, and key APOC success indicators in such scenarios. Michał Witkowski pointed out that while APOC naturally involves operational matters, the most important challenge is to view it from the passenger’s perspective, focusing on “Passenger Experience.” This is the viewpoint from which APOC’s impact on airport management should be assessed.

“This is not easy for many airport specialists to understand. They usually focus on their own management sections, but here we are talking about holistic thinking. If an airport director decides, for example, that good management of parking spaces at the airport is the most important thing at a given moment, everyone must understand that this is the priority and comply with it,” he said. He mentioned the necessary work on awareness of a common goal and data exchange, which ultimately allows for decision-making in agreement with multiple parties, and then verifying these decisions together at the end of the day. “It’s not that thanks to APOC all decisions will be good, but the next day we can discuss and verify them together,” Witkowski said.

The conference also highlighted the dynamic changes in air cargo. The panel “Air Cargo Perspectives in Central European Airports in the Face of Rapid Changes in Global Trade” discussed how Central European countries can leverage the current geopolitical situation and changing globalization paradigms, characterized by high tariffs and shifts in trade flows, to create regional cargo hubs.

Technological innovations were also the subject of a presentation by Piotr Rotmański from Olsztyn Airport titled “Remote Tower and Remote Apron Technologies – The Future of Airport Operations Management.” He provided an overview of the concepts, functionalities, and applications of these technologies, emphasizing their benefits (increased operational efficiency, cost reduction, improved safety) and the challenges associated with their implementation.

The conference did not overlook the topic of evolving passenger needs. The panel “Changing Collaboration Between Tourism and Aviation” was led by Andrzej Gniadkowski from the V4+ Airports Association, with participation from representatives of IATA and tourism companies such as CEDOK. The discussion focused on how strengthening cooperation can improve the overall passenger travel experience – from booking to post-travel engagement. Changing traveler preferences, such as “bleisure,” “slow travel,” and experiential tourism, as well as the role of technology in creating integrated travel packages, were also discussed.

The AIR 2025 conference was co-organized by the V4+ Airports Association and CEETRA (Travel Retail Organization), in cooperation with Prague Airport. Some topics were therefore dedicated to commercial issues (travel retail), including discussions on legal changes and trends in customer behavior in Central and Eastern Europe. Attention was drawn to the presentation of a new CEETRA member, EUPHORIA, “Breaking the rules – A Czech liquor brand is redefining airport shopping experience,” which shared a brief history of the appearance of a blend of Absinthe and Cannabis alcohol, as well as legal Cannabis products, at airports.